Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and information management method

ABSTRACT

A conversion unit acquires collected information from a plurality of customer servers and performs a plurality of conversions different with respect to each of the customer server on the acquired collected information to generate conversion data. An identification unit performs identification on information contained in each set of collected information in a state where, with respect to the conversion data generated by the conversion unit, information before the conversion performed by the conversion unit is secreted.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of theprior Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-173047, filed on Sep. 2,2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The embodiment discussed herein is related to an information processingapparatus, an information processing system, and an informationmanagement method.

BACKGROUND

The volume of data to be dealt with in the society is rapidly increasingrecently because of the broad use of the Internet, the reduction inprice of information processing devices, and the broad use ofinformation terminal devices, such as mobile phones. Various companiestherefore perform information management using data centers. Varioustypes of information are accumulated in data centers and the use of avariety of information stored in the data centers provides informationuseful to improve the business operations and useful for stableoperations in various companies and information useful for businesses.To provide the above-described services, it is preferable that data becollected from systems with respect to various kinds of businesses and alarge number of customers.

As described above, when information accumulated in the data centers isacquired, information that is not preferably provided to the outside forsecurity reasons may be contained. To realize the above-describedservices, it is desirable that security be ensured and information oncustomers accumulated in the data centers be acquired.

As a method of strengthening the security, there is a managing methodaccording to access authority to, for example, manage connection to anetwork or an information processing apparatus with respect to each useror an information processing apparatus or put a limitation on referringto to or updating the files in the information processing apparatus withrespect to each user.

When information of the data centers is collected, operations tomanually secrete specific information is complicated and it is alsodifficult to ensure operations without leakage. Furthermore, because thesystem consists of a large number of devices, it takes an enormousamount of time to manually perform the process of collecting neededinformation from the devices, keeping consistency of the collectedinformation, and secreting the information, which requires aconsiderable amount of energy.

Collecting customer information that is converted according to anapplication programming interface (API) for conversion to protectsecrecy can be assumed here. To provide data while ensuring security,there is a conventional technology in which a statistical analysis onthe medical conditions of the patients is performed according to datafor analyzing the medical conditions of patients accumulated in aserver, a secreting process is performed on the result of analysis, andthe secreted result of analysis is transmitted to a terminal device, andthe result of the analysis is provided by and checked on the terminaldevice.

Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-173376

When customer information is collected from the various data centers andif APIs different from one another are used at various data centers,respectively, there is a risk that collected information cause amismatch. Particularly when data centers are set in various countries,different APIs would be highly likely to be used due to the different inlanguage. Sets of information accumulated in the respective data centersare relevant to one another and therefore secreting informationaccording to each server or center makes it difficult to grasp therelevance among the sets of information.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of an embodiment, an information processingapparatus includes: a conversion unit that acquires collectedinformation from a plurality of information providing sources and thatperforms a plurality of conversions different with respect to each ofthe information providing sources on the acquired collected informationto generate conversion data; and an identification unit that performsidentification on information contained in each set of collectedinformation in a state where, with respect to the conversion datagenerated by the conversion unit, information before the conversionperformed by the conversion unit is secreted.

The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attainedby means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out inthe claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and arenot restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information processing systemaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conversion server according to theembodiment;

FIG. 3 is a table of an exemplary transmission information managementtable;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a collection analysis server according tothe embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a table of an exemplary collected information managementtable;

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an identification process performedby an identification processing unit;

FIG. 7 is a diagram representing an exemplary analysis report;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conversion rule distribution serveraccording to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of data conversion performed by a conversionserver according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of data acquisition performed by collectionanalysis server according to the embodiment; and

FIG. 11 is a hardware configuration diagram of the informationprocessing system according to the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained withreference to accompanying drawings. The following embodiment is not tobe construed as limiting the invention.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information processing systemaccording to the embodiment. As represented in FIG. 1, an informationprocessing system 1 according to the embodiment includes data centers 11and 12, a control center 3, and a conversion rule distribution center 2.The data center 11 and the data center 12 are set in differentcountries, respectively. The control center 3 is independent of theconversion rule distribution center 2 and thus does not know theconversion rules distributed by the conversion rule distribution center2, which will be described below.

The data center 11 includes customer servers 111 and 113 and conversionservers 112 and 114. The customer server 111 is a server of a system ofCompany A. The customer server 113 is a server of a system of Company B.The conversion server 112 corresponds to the customer server 111 and theconversion server 114 corresponds to the customer server 113.

The data center 12 includes a customer server 115 and a conversionserver 116. The customer server 115 is a server of a system of CompanyC. The conversion server 116 corresponds to the customer server 115.

The customer servers 111, 113 and 115 manage data on customers. Forexample, when Company A runs convenience stores, the customer server 111manages, for example, the information on the business of Company A, thename, age, gender, etc., of a purchaser who purchased items, informationof the date and store of the purchase, the weather on the purchase, thenames of the purchased items. The data managed by the customer servers111, 113 and 115 is referred to as “business operation data”. Thebusiness operation data serves as exemplary “collected information”.FIG. 1 represents only one customer server with respect to the system ofeach company; however, practically, multiple customer servers may beset.

The conversion servers 112, 114, and 116 are set to correspond todifferent customer systems. In other words, in the informationprocessing system 1, one conversion server is assigned to one customersystem. The conversion servers 112, 114 and 116 serve as an exemplary“data conversion apparatus”. Because the conversion servers 112, 114 and116 perform the same operations, only the conversion server 112 will beexemplified and described below.

The conversion server 112 acquires information that is managed by thecustomer server 111. The conversion server 112 then converts theacquired information and secretes information to be secreted among theacquired information. The conversion server 112 transmits the convertedinformation to a collection analysis server 30 of the control center 3.The details of the conversion server 112 will be described withreference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the conversion server according to theembodiment. As represented in FIG. 2, the conversion server 112 includesa receiver 121, a conversion unit 122, a transmitter 123, and a startprocessing unit 124.

The start processing unit 124 starts the conversion server 112. Forexample, the start processing unit 124 starts the receiver 121, thetransmitter 123, and the conversion unit 122 that are surrounded by adotted line 120. Once the conversion server 112 is started, the startprocessing unit 124 notifies a conversion rule distribution server 20that the conversion server 112 is started.

The receiver 121 acquires the business operation data from the customerserver 111. The receiver 121 outputs the acquired business operationdata to a first conversion unit 125 of the conversion unit 122.

The conversion unit 122 converts the business operation data acquiredfrom the customer server 111, i.e., the business operation data of thesystem of Company A, according to data unique to Company A. In otherwords, each of the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116 performs uniquedata conversion corresponding to its corresponding customer system. Thedetails of the process performed by the conversion unit 122 will bedescribed below. The conversion unit 122 includes the first conversionunit 125 and a second conversion unit 126.

The first conversion unit 125 regularly receives an input of aconversion rule from the conversion rule distribution server 20. Thefirst conversion unit 125 holds the input conversion rule until the nextacquisition of conversion rules. The conversion rule is common to allcustomers. The conversion rule may allow encryption or simplereplacement. On each transmission from the conversion rule distributionserver 20, a conversion rule defining a changed conversion method istransmitted.

The first conversion unit 125 receives an input of the businessoperation data of the system of Company A from the receiver 121. Thefirst conversion unit 125 specifies, from among the business operationdata on customers, information to be secreted from ones other than thecustomer as information to be converted. The information to be secretedis, for example, personal information, such as the name and address, andthe company name. Specifically, the first conversion unit 125 specifiesthe information to be converted according a predetermined word and theposition in the business operation data.

When conversion is simple replacement, the first conversion unit 125determines whether there is a conversion rule on the information to beconverted. When there is no conversion rule for the information to beconverted, the first conversion unit 125 issues a request for generatinga conversion rule to the conversion rule distribution server 20. Thefirst conversion unit 125 then receives a conversion rule to which a newconversion rule for the current information to be converted is addedfrom the conversion rule distribution server 20. Note that, whenconversion, such as encryption, is performed, the first conversion unit125 may omit the process of checking whether there is a conversion rulefor the information to be converted.

The first conversion unit 125 converts the information to be convertedamong the business operation data according to the conversion rule heldby the first conversion unit 125 and generates intermediate data. Thefirst conversion unit 125 then outputs the generated intermediate datato the second conversion unit 126.

The intermediate data is data obtained by converting the businessoperation data according to the rule common to all customers. In otherwords, there is a possibility that one who knows the conversion rule fora customer would be able to restore the intermediate data to thebusiness operation data before the conversion. In other words, the levelof security of the intermediate data among customers is low.

The second conversion unit 126 includes a counter 127. The counter 127servers as an exemplary “first counter”. For example, the secondconversion unit 126 manages the counter 127 by using a transmissioninformation management table 128 represented in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is atable of the exemplary transmission information management table. Forexample, as represented in FIG. 3, in the transmission informationmanagement table 128, the company name, the date of transmission, thecounter value, and the data identifier are registered.

When the conversion server 112 is started, the second conversion unit126 receives an input of an initial value of the counter value from theconversion rule distribution server 20. The second conversion unit 126then registers the acquired initial value in a column of the countervalue in the transmission information management table 128.

The second conversion unit 126 then receives an input of intermediatedata from the first conversion unit 125. The second conversion unit 126acquires the counter value from the transmission information managementtable 128. The second conversion unit 126 uses the acquired countervalue to encrypt the intermediate data and generates conversion data.

The second conversion unit 126 then outputs the generated conversiondata together with the company name, the data identifier, the date oftransmission that are stored in the transmission information managementtable 128 to the transmitter 123. Furthermore, the second conversionunit 126 registers the value obtained by incrementing the currentcounter value by one in the transmission information management table128 and updates the counter 127.

The counter value differs among the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116.In other words, the counter value differs with respect to each customerand is managed individually with respect to each customer by acorresponding one of the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116. For thisreason, conversions different with respect to customers, respectively,are performed on the sets of conversion data obtained by encryptionaccording to the counter values. For this reason, even if the countervalue with respect to a customer is used, it is difficult to estimatethe original business operation data from conversion data on anothercustomer; therefore, the conversion data obtained by performingencryption according to the counter value ensures security betweencustomers.

According to the embodiment, the counter value is used to perform adifferent data conversion with respect to each customer. Alternatively,another value may be used as long as the value allows a differentconversion with respect to each customer and the value can be sharedwith the collection analysis server 30 as described below. Note that thevalue to be used by the second conversion unit 126 for encryption ispreferably a variable. For example, the second conversion unit 126 mayuse random numbers to perform encryption.

The transmitter 123 receives an input of the data identifier and theconversion data from the second conversion unit 126. The transmitter 123then transmits the conversion data generated from the business operationdata of the system of Company A to the collection analysis server 30together with the company name, the data identifier, and the date oftransmission.

FIG. 1 will be referred back here to continue descriptions. Thecollection analysis server 30 receives the conversion data generatedfrom the business operation data of the system of Company A, the companyname, the data identifier and the date of transmission from theconversion server 112. The collection analysis server 30 then uses thecounter value that the collection analysis server 30 has in advance todecrypt the conversion data and generates the intermediate datacorresponding to the conversion data before the conversion. Thecollection analysis server 30 uses the intermediate data to performidentification on the information and uses the result of identificationto analyze the information. The collection analysis server 30 then holdsthe result of analysis and issues a notification to the user. Thecollection analysis server 30 servers as an exemplary “data collectingapparatus”. The details of the collection analysis server 30 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the collection analysis server according tothe embodiment. As represented in FIG. 4, the collection analysis server30 includes a receiver 301, an identification unit 302, a data analysisunit 303, and a database 304.

The receiver 301 receives, from the conversion server 112, theconversion data generated from the business operation data of the systemof Company A, name of the company that possesses the business operationdata from which the conversion data originates, data identifier of theconversion data, and date of transmission of the conversion data. Thereceiver 301 outputs the received conversion data, the company name, thedata identifier, and the date of transmission to the identification unit302.

The identification unit 302 performs identification on the conversiondata acquired from the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116, i.e., theconversion data obtained by converting the business operation data oneach customer. Different encryptions are performed with respect torespective customers. For this reason, it is difficult to specify setsof information that are identical in the conversion data and thereforethe identification unit 302 restores the conversion data to theintermediate data and then performs identification. The details of theprocess performed by the identification unit 302 will be describedbelow. The identification unit 302 includes an inverse transformationunit 321 and an identification processing unit 323.

The inverse transformation unit 321 includes a counter 322. The counter322 is an exemplary “second counter”. For example, the inversetransformation unit 321 manages the counter 322 according to a collectedinformation management table 324 represented in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is atable of the exemplary collected information management table. Forexample, as represented in FIG. 5, in the collected informationmanagement table 324, the company name, the date of transmission, thecounter value, and the data identifier are registered with respect toeach customer. In other words, the inverse transformation unit 321manages the counter 322 with respect to each customer.

When the conversion server 112 is started, the inverse transformationunit 321 receives an input of an initial value of the counter value fromthe conversion rule distribution server 20. The inverse transformationunit 321 registers the acquired initial value in a column of the countervalue in the collected information management table 324.

The inverse transformation unit 321 receives an input of the conversiondata, the company name, the data identifier, and the date oftransmission from the receiver 301. The inverse transformation unit 321registers the date of transmission and the data identifier in an entrythat matches in company name in the collected information managementtable 324.

The inverse transformation unit 321 then acquires the counter value inthe entry that matches in company name in the collected informationmanagement table 324. The inverse transformation unit 321 uses theacquired counter value to decrypt the conversion data corresponding tothe data identifier written in the same entry and generates theintermediate data corresponding to the data before the conversion. Inother words, the inverse transformation unit 321 uses the counter valueto decrypt the conversion data that is transmitted together with thedata identifier.

The inverse transformation unit 321 then stores the generatedintermediate data in the database 304. The inverse transformation unit321 further registers the value obtained by incrementing the currentcounter value by one in the collected information management table 324and updates the counter 322.

The identification processing unit 323 identifies information containedin the intermediate data accumulated in the database 304. In otherwords, the identification processing unit 323 specifies, as identicalinformation, sets of information that match each other among theinformation contained in the intermediate data obtained by convertingthe business operation data according to the conversion rule.

The intermediate data referred herein is data obtained by converting thebusiness operation data of the system on each customer according to theconversion rule common to all customers. For this reason, when sets ofinformation originate from identical information, sets of intermediateinformation in the intermediate data have the same value. For thisreason, using the intermediate data, the identification processing unit323 is able to perform identification on the information in the businessoperation data before conversion to the intermediate data.

With reference to FIG. 6, the identification process performed by theidentification processing unit 323 will be further described. FIG. 6 isa diagram for explaining the identification process performed by theidentification processing unit. A table 401 is a table in which thebusiness operation data of the system of Company A is registered. Atable 402 is a table in which the business operation data of the systemof Company B is registered. Company A is a company that runs conveniencestores. Company B is a company that runs rental service businesses.

The purchaser information in the tables 401 and 402 is information to besecreted and converted. The identification processing unit 323 acquiresintermediate data 431 in which data 412 on a purchaser in businessoperation data 411 is secreted as represented in the table 403. Theidentification processing unit 323 further acquires intermediate data433 in which data 422 on the purchaser in business operation data 421 issecreted as represented in the table 403.

In this case, the data 412 is converted into “AAA” represented in data432 according to the conversion rule. The data 422 is also convertedinto “AAA” represented in data 434 according to the conversion rule.Without restoring the intermediate data 431 and the intermediate data433 to the business operation data 411 and the business operation data412 before the conversion, the identification processing unit 323 knowsthat the data 432 in the intermediate data 431 and the data 434 in theintermediate data 433 are identical data. Accordingly, theidentification processing unit 323 is able to perform identification onthe information to be converted in the state where the information to beconverted in the business operation data is kept secreted.

The identification processing unit 323 outputs the result ofidentification on the information in the intermediate data to the dataanalysis unit 303. For example, the identification processing unit 323gathers sets of intermediate data having the identical information intoa list and outputs the list to the data analysis unit 303.

The data analysis unit 303 receives an input of the result ofidentification performed by the identification processing unit 323.Using the intermediate data that is stored in the database 304 and theresult of identification performed by the identification processing unit323, the data analysis unit 303 analyzes the intermediate data. The dataanalysis unit 303 then outputs an analysis report 330 like thatrepresented in FIG. 7 based on the result of analysis by using a printeror a monitor, and the analysis report 330 is provided to the user. FIG.7 is a diagram representing the exemplary analysis report. The dataanalysis unit 303 performs an analysis according to the data representedin FIG. 6 and creates the analysis report 330.

In this case, from the sets of secreted information to be converted thatare specified as identical, the data analysis unit 303 determines thatthe same person bought a rice ball at a convenience store and bought adigital versatile disk (DVD) at a rental video shop. From the age,gender, etc., of the person registered in the intermediate data, thedata analysis unit 303 analyzes that a person who often buys a rice ballat a convenience store tends to buy a DVD at a rental video shop andprovides the analysis report 330 in which the result of analysis iswritten to the user.

FIG. 1 will be referred back to continue descriptions. The conversionrule distribution server 20 receives start notifications from theconversion servers 112, 114 and 116. The case will be described herewhere the conversion rule distribution server 20 receives a startnotification from the conversion server 112. The conversion ruledistribution server 20 transmits an initial value of the counter valueto the conversion server 112 and the collection analysis server 30. Theconversion rule distribution server 20 regularly generates a conversionrule and transmits the generated conversion rule to the conversionservers 112, 114 and 116. Furthermore, the conversion rule distributionserver 20 may transmit the latest conversion rules to the startedservers when the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116 are started. Whenthe conversion rule allows simple replacement, the conversion ruledistribution server 20 receives requests for generating a rule oninformation to be converted from the conversion servers 112, 114 and116. The conversion rule distribution server 20 then creates a rule onthe specified information and transmits the conversion rule to which thecreated new rule is added to the requesting conversion servers. Thedetails of the conversion rule distribution server 20 will be describedwith reference to FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the conversion rule distribution serveraccording to the embodiment. As represented in FIG. 8, the conversionrule distribution server 20 includes a conversion rule creation unit201, a storage unit 202, a distribution unit 203, and a counter valuemanagement unit 204.

The storage unit 202 stores a conversion table 221 in which theconversion rule is written.

The conversion rule creation unit 201 regularly updates the conversionrule written in the conversion table 221. When conversion is simplereplacement, the conversion rule creation unit 201 receives a requestfor creating a rule together with the word to be converted from theconversion server 112. The conversion rule creation unit 201 thencreates a rule on the word with respect to the request. The conversionrule creation unit 201 then adds the created rule to the conversiontable 221 to update the conversion rule.

Once the conversion table 221 is updated by the conversion rule creationunit 201, the distribution unit 203 acquires the conversion rule for theconversion server 112 from the conversion table 221. The distributionunit 203 transmits the acquired conversion rule to the conversion server112.

When the conversion server 112 is started, the counter value managementunit 204 receives a start notification from the conversion server 112.Upon receiving the start notification, the counter value management unit204 generates a new initial value of the counter value. The countervalue management unit 204 then transmits the generated initial value ofthe counter value to the conversion server 112 and the collectionanalysis server 30.

With reference to FIG. 9, the flow of data conversion performed by theconversion server 112 according to the embodiment will be described.FIG. 9 is a flowchart of data conversion performed by the conversionserver according to the embodiment. The case will be described where theconversion defined according to the conversion rules is simplereplacement.

The receiver 121 collects business operation data from the customerservers 111, 113 and 115 (step S101). The receiver 121 outputs thecollected business operation data to the first conversion unit 125.

The first conversion unit 125 receives an input of the businessoperation data from the receiver 121. The first conversion unit 125determines whether there is a rule on each set of business operationdata in the conversion rule that is acquired in advance from theconversion rule distribution server 20 (step S102). When there is a ruleon each set of business operation data in the conversion rule (YES atstep S102), the first conversion unit 125 goes to step S105.

On the other hand, when there is no rule on business operation data (NOat step S102), the first conversion unit 125 issues a request forcreating a rule to the conversion rule distribution server 20 (stepS103).

The first conversion unit 125 then acquires the latest conversion rulefrom the conversion rule distribution server 20 (step S104).

The first conversion unit 125 then converts the business operation dataaccording to the held conversion rule and generates intermediate data(step S105). The first conversion unit 125 then outputs the intermediatedata to the second conversion unit 126.

The second conversion unit 126 acquires the intermediate data from thefirst conversion unit 125. The second conversion unit 126 then acquiresthe counter value from the counter 127 (step S106).

The second conversion unit 126 uses the counter value to encrypt theintermediate data and generates conversion data (step S107).

The second conversion unit 126 then transmits the conversion data to thecollection analysis server 30 (step S108).

Furthermore, the second conversion unit 126 increments the counter 127by one (step S109).

With reference to FIG. 10, the flow of data acquisition performed by thecollection analysis server 30 according to the embodiment will bedescribed. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the data acquisition performed bythe collection analysis server according to the embodiment.

The receiver 301 receives the encrypted conversion data (step S201). Thereceiver 301 outputs the received conversion data to the inversetransformation unit 321.

The inverse transformation unit 321 receives input of the conversiondata from the receiver 301. The inverse transformation unit 321 thenacquires the counter value from the counter 322 (step S202).

The inverse transformation unit 321 uses the acquired counter value todecrypt the conversion data (step S203). In other words, the inversetransformation unit 321 acquires the intermediate data before encryptionof the conversion data.

The inverse transformation unit 321 then stores the intermediate dataobtained by decryption in the database 304 (step S204).

Furthermore, the inverse transformation unit 321 increments the counter322 by one (step S205).

The identification processing unit 323 performs identification on theintermediate data stored in the database 304 at a given timing (stepS206). The identification processing unit 323 then outputs the result ofidentification to the data analysis unit 303.

The data analysis unit 303 receives an input of the result ofidentification performed by the identification processing unit 323.Using the acquired result of identification, the data analysis unit 303performs an analysis on the data stored in the database 304 (step S207).

Hardware Configuration

With reference to FIG. 11, the hardware configuration of the customerservers 111, 113 and 115, the conversion servers 112, 114 and 116, theconversion rule distribution server 20, and the collection analysisserver 30 will be described. FIG. 11 is a hardware configuration diagramof the information processing system according to the embodiment.According to FIG. 11, an A-company system 13 and a B-company system 14are set in a data center 11. A C-company system 15 is set in the datacenter 12. Three customer servers 111 are set in the A-company system13, three customer servers 113 are set in the B-company system 14, andthree customer servers 115 are set in the C-company system 15. Thecustomer server 111 will be exemplified here to describe the customerservers 111, 113 and 115.

The customer server 111 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, a hard discdrive (HDD) 103, and a network interface controller (NIC) 104. The CPU101 and the memory 102 store information that is input by an operator inthe HDD 103 and provides the information stored in the HDD 103. The CPU101 and the memory 102 transmit business operation data to theconversion servers 112, 114 and 116 via the NIC 104.

The conversion server 112 includes a CPU 105, a memory 106, a HDD 107and a NIC 108. The NIC 108 is a communication interface between theconversion rule distribution server 20 and the collection analysisserver 30. The NIC 108 implements the receiver 121 and the transmitter123 exemplified in FIG. 2. The HDD 107 stores various programs and anoperating system (OS) for implementing the conversion unit 122 and thestart processing unit 124 exemplified in FIG. 2. The CPU 105 and thememory 106 implement the functions of the conversion unit 122 and thestart processing unit 124 exemplified in FIG. 2. Specifically, the CPU105 reads the various programs and the OS stored in the HDD 107, loadsthem in the memory 106, and executes them, thereby implementing thefunctions of the conversion unit 122 and the start processing unit 124.The memory 106 stores the transmission information management table 128,thereby implementing the function of the counter 127.

The collection analysis server 30 includes a CPU 31, a HDD 32, a memory33, and a NIC 34. The NIC 34 is a communication interface between thecollection analysis server 30 with the conversion servers 112, 114 and116. The NIC 34 implements the receiver 301 exemplified in FIG. 4. TheHDD 32 stores various programs for implementing the functions of theidentification unit 302, the data analysis unit 303, and the database304 illustrated in FIG. 2. The HDD 32 stores the data held by thedatabase 304. The CPU 31 and the memory 33 impalement the functions ofthe identification unit 302, the data analysis unit 303, and thedatabase 304 exemplified in FIG. 4. Specifically, the CPU 31 reads thevarious programs stored in the HDD 32, loads them in the memory 33, andexecutes them, thereby implementing the functions of the identificationunit 302, the data analysis unit 303, and the database 304. The memory33 stores the collected information management table 324, therebyimplementing the function of the counter 322.

The conversion rule distribution server 20 includes a CPU 21, a HDD 22,a memory 23, and a NIC 24. The NIC 24 is a communication interfacebetween conversion rule distribution server 20 and the conversionservers 112, 114 and 116. The HDD 22 stores various programs forimplementing the functions of the conversion rule creation unit 201, thedistribution unit 203, and the counter value management unit 204exemplified in FIG. 8. The HDD 22 stores the conversion table 221 andimplements the function of the storage unit 202. The CPU 21 and thememory 23 implement the functions of the conversion rule creation unit201, the distribution unit 203, and the counter value management unit204. Specifically, the CPU 21 reads the various programs stored in theHDD 22, loads them in the memory 23, and executes them, therebyimplementing the functions of the conversion rule creation unit 201, thedistribution unit 203, and the counter value management unit 204.

As described above, the conversion server according to the embodimentconverts the business operation data acquired from the customer serverinto intermediate data according to the conversion rule common to allcustomers and then, using different encryptions with respect torespective customers, converts the intermediate data to generateconversion data. The collection analysis server decrypts the conversiondata to restore the conversion data to the intermediate data, performsidentification on the intermediate data, and analyzes the data. Ontransmission to the collection analysis server, security among customersis ensured, which ensures a higher security level. Furthermore, becausethe information to be secreted is kept secreted during theidentification and analysis on the data, a higher security level can beensured in those processes. Accordingly, it is possible to collect setsof information on multiple customers and perform identification whileensuring strengthened security.

According to an aspect of the embodiment of the information processingapparatus, the information processing system, and the informationmanagement method disclosed herein, an effect is achieved that it ispossible to collect sets of information on multiple customers andperform identification while ensuring strengthened security.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical purposes of aiding the reader in understanding the inventionand the concepts contributed by the inventor to further the art, and arenot to be construed as limitations to such specifically recited examplesand conditions, nor does the organization of such examples in thespecification relate to a showing of the superiority and inferiority ofthe invention. Although the embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed in detail, it should be understood that the various changes,substitutions, and alterations could be made hereto without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: aconversion unit that acquires collected information from a plurality ofinformation providing sources and that performs a plurality ofconversions different with respect to each of the information providingsources on the acquired collected information to generate conversiondata; and an identification unit that performs identification oninformation contained in each set of collected information in a statewhere, with respect to the conversion data generated by the conversionunit, information before the conversion performed by the conversion unitis secreted.
 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim1, further comprising a data analysis unit that analyzes, on the basisof a result of the identification performed by the identification unit,the each set of collected information in the state where the informationbefore the conversion performed by the conversion unit is secreted. 3.The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, furthercomprising a distribution unit that distributes a rule for conversion ata predetermined timing, wherein the conversion unit includes: a firstconversion unit that acquires collected information from the informationproviding sources and that covers the acquired collected informationinto intermediate data according to the rule for conversion distributedby the distribution unit; and a second conversion unit that converts theintermediate data into the conversion data by using information uniqueto the each information providing sources, and the identification unitincludes: an inverse transformation unit that restore the conversiondata to the intermediate data before a conversion performed by thesecond conversion unit by using unique information corresponding to aninformation providing source of the collected information correspondingto the conversion data; and an identification processing unit thatperform identification on information contained in the each set ofcollected information by using the intermediate data generated by theinverse transformation unit.
 4. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 3, wherein the second conversion unit includes afirst counter with respect to the each information providing source andthe second conversion unit converts the intermediate data that isgenerated by the first converter from the collected information from aspecific information providing source into the conversion data based onthe value of the first counter corresponding to the specific informationproviding source and increments the first counter, and the inversetransformation unit includes a second counter that matches the firstcounter in initial value with respect to the each information providingsource and the inverse transformation unit converts the conversion datacorresponding to the collected information from the specific informationproviding source into the intermediate data based on the value of thesecond counter corresponding to the specific information providingsource and increments the second counter.
 5. An information processingsystem comprising: a data conversion device including a conversion unitthat acquires collected information from a plurality of informationproviding sources and that performs a plurality of conversions differentwith respect to each of the information providing sources on theacquired collected information to generate conversion data; and a datacollecting apparatus including an identification unit that acquires theconversion data from the data conversion apparatus and performsidentification on information contained in each set of collectedinformation in a state where, with respect to the acquired conversiondata, information before the conversion performed by the conversion unitis secreted.
 6. An information management method comprising: acquiringcollected information from a plurality of information providing source;performing a plurality of conversions different with respect to each ofthe information providing sources on the acquired collected informationto generate conversion data; performing identification on informationcontained in each set of collected information in a state where, withrespect to the generated conversion data, information before theconversion is secreted.